Play Book Tag discussion

The voting wasn't very close this month, yet again.

The tag for next month is:

sad

Please share your reading plans and recommendations below.

Remember, for the regular monthly reads, the book can be shelved as "sad" on Goodreads, or be a book that is not yet shelved that way but you feel should be.

One way to find books to read for this tag is to please visit:

https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/sad

We encourage people to link to additional lists below if they find them.

Sad Reading!!!

I am in the midst of Booker season, so have been searching for a read that fits sad, but that's likely to be a short read, and I think I found the perfect fit: Heaven

But not going to lie, I was really hoping for true crime.

Well, some true crime books are also "sad" .... off to hunt for possibilities.

I'm not a big fan of true crime, but the main reason I didn't vote for it is because we just had crime as the tag a few months ago. I'm not keen on sad books, but there are a number of books on that shelf that I have liked quite a bit so there is a good selection, and it's more of a change.

I like bittersweet books and sad books with a happy or hopeful ending.

I have a good list going with sad books I loved, and ones I want to read. My team mates are helping to create a listopia with books we loved or want to read. I hope everyone can help develop it, or benefit from it. I’ll post details and send invitations.

These all fit the letters too

Dear Edward
After Annie
Sense and Sensibility - I’m reading it now. Other Austen books probably work too.
The Island of Sea Women + other books by Lisa See
The Astonishing Color of After
The Seven Year Slip - this made me happy, so I plan to read this book by the same author:
The Dead Romantics
The Blind Assassin
The Silver Linings Playbook

I expect this and I do have a few I really want to read. Truthfully it is another one of those which making my usual choices of reading, I will read something sad in any given month.

I've found on these on my tbr :
Foster
Circe
Atonement
Beartown
The Fountains of Silence
Les Miserables
Babel
Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction
The Astonishing Color of After
The Heart's Invisible Furies
Our Wives Under the Sea

NancyJ wrote: "I like bittersweet books and sad books with a happy or hopeful ending.

I have a good list going with sad books I loved, and ones I want to read. My team mates are helping to create a listopia wit..."

Oh, Dear Edward, is a book I want to get to at some point too. Hmmm.

Booknblues wrote: "I expect this and I do have a few I really want to read. Truthfully it is another one of those which making my usual choices of reading, I will read something sad in any given month.

I've found o..."

Beautiful Boy is an incredible book and a great recommendation. One of very few books I have read twice.

Anita wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "I like bittersweet books and sad books with a happy or hopeful ending.

I have a good list going with sad books I loved, and ones I want to read. My team mates are helping to create..."

It’s been a long time since I read Dear Edward. I might read it again.

NancyJ wrote: "I like bittersweet books and sad books with a happy or hopeful ending.

I have a good list going with sad books I loved, and ones I want to read. My team mates are helping to create a listopia wit..."

Nancy, I just now went through some of the books I've read. These are sad ones that would fit with BWF:

**"Dominicana" by Cruz, Angie. I gave this one 5 stars.
"10 Minutes, 38 Seconds in this Strange World" by Shafak, Elif
**"How to Say Babylon" by Sinclair, Safiya
"Sorrow and Bliss" by Mason, Meg
"Behind the Scenes at the Museum" by Atkinson, Kate
"Swimming Lessons" by Fuller, Claire
"All the Acorns on the Forest Floor" by Kim Hooper

**My two favorites are those with asterisks.

Holly R W wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "I like bittersweet books and sad books with a happy or hopeful ending.

I have a good list going with sad books I loved, and ones I want to read. My team mates are helping to create..."

How to Say Babylon was very interesting and definitely fits.

I think this is finally my month to get round to reading both “Demon Copperhead” and “The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue”. They are supposed to be wonderful and they have been cluttering up the kitchen workbench for an age.

Booknblues wrote: "I expect this and I do have a few I really want to read. Truthfully it is another one of those which making my usual choices of reading, I will read something sad in any given month.
I've found o..."

Anita wrote:
Beautiful Boy is an incredible book and a great recommendation. One of very few books I have read twice.

Ooh, some of my favorites. I want to try Beautiful Boy, and maybe Our Wives Under the Sea.

Holly R W wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "I like bittersweet books and sad books with a happy or hopeful ending.

I have a good list going with sad books I loved, and ones I want to read. My team mates are helping to create..."

Those look good. Some don’t have 5 SAD tags yet though. I loved Sorrow and Bliss. I practically read it twice back to back. It also made me mad, but in a thought provoking way.

I think all of Elif Shafak books are sad, and they’re so good. Honor just went on sale at Audible.

Booknblues wrote: "I expect this and I do have a few I really want to read. Truthfully it is another one of those which making my usual choices of reading, I will read something sad in any given month.

I've found o..."

I recommend The Fountains of Silence 4 star read for me

KateNZ wrote: "I think this is finally my month to get round to reading both “Demon Copperhead” and “The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue”. They are supposed to be wonderful and they have been cluttering up the kit..."

They are! Thanks to Addie LaRue, I stopped praying in the garden at midnight for Immortality. 80 years will be more than enough for me.

NancyJ wrote: "KateNZ wrote: "I think this is finally my month to get round to reading both “Demon Copperhead” and “The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue”. They are supposed to be wonderful and they have been clutte..."

HAHAHAHA! Know what you mean.

I would never have tagged Addie LaRue as 'sad'. But I don't tag books that way at all.

I found so many I had read -- and did not of course automatically consider them as 'sad' -- and a whole slew on my TBR that I'm looking forward to this tag! Some are books I've been trying to get to for some time. Really expecting this to be a month of reading a few really terrific books.

Anita wrote: "But not going to lie, I was really hoping for true crime...."

I was also hoping for "true crime". However, "sad" is not a surprise, really.

Here is the link for the listopia for sad books that spell SAD. We collectively found 166 books so far. I have 50 more to add after the month begins. It only takes a couple of minutes to vote.

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...

If anyone needs help adding a book, just put it in the comments section and one of us can add it. Or send me a DM for a tip on the Fastest way to add books to a listopia.

We’ll have additional books that don’t fit the BWF game in the comments.

LibraryCin wrote: "Anita wrote: "But not going to lie, I was really hoping for true crime...."

I was also hoping for "true crime". However, "sad" is not a surprise, really."

Ditto Cindy and Anita

NancyJ wrote: "Here is the link for the listopia for sad books that spell SAD. We collectively found 166 books so far. I have 50 more to add after the month begins. It only takes a couple of minutes to vote.

ht..."

Thanks Nancy for setting up the Listopia!!

Jen K wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "Here is the link for the listopia for sad books that spell SAD. We collectively found 166 books so far. I have 50 more to add after the month begins. It only takes a couple of minute..."

You’re very welcome, thanks for participating! I love to see which books get the most votes from the group, and finding new books is always fun.

It is always interesting how books are tagged I've gone through my titles which begin with A as well as my A-authors, and some of the books in which I had tears streaming down my face didn't rate a sad, even though they had many readers.

Booknblues wrote: "It is always interesting how books are tagged I've gone through my titles which begin with A as well as my A-authors, and some of the books in which I had tears streaming down my face didn't rate a..."

I know, it’s really hard to predict, especially with the less common tags like this one. Fortunately it only matters for the challenges. If you think a book is sad, I know that I will probably agree.

NancyJ wrote: "Booknblues wrote: "It is always interesting how books are tagged I've gone through my titles which begin with A as well as my A-authors, and some of the books in which I had tears streaming down my..."

I did add a few to your list and double checked to make sure they had enough sad tags. I'm not sure if they were there before. I wanted to add something new for you.

Booknblues wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "Booknblues wrote: "It is always interesting how books are tagged I've gone through my titles which begin with A as well as my A-authors, and some of the books in which I had tears st..."

Thanks Fran. They’re perfect for the list. I added the first Donoghue book to my September possibilities list. I loved the Reading List, it has a nice balance of sad, and hopeful.

Can we shift the listopia chat to the challenge chat thread to save confusion?

References to spelling and tag numbers are only relevant to those of us who are in the challenge teams. Everyone else can just read any book they think might fit (for whatever reason)

I agree with KateNZ. I primarily suggested that a BWF Chat thread be set up to pull all the specific 5 or more tag and letter discussions at tag vote time, and list making, AWAY from the monthly vote and announcement threads. Otherwise it is confusing to new members and not fair to all those PBT members not participating in challenges. If any want, they have equal access to that discussion, but it lets them ignore it.

KateNZ wrote: "I think this is finally my month to get round to reading both “Demon Copperhead” and “The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue”. They are supposed to be wonderful and they have been cluttering up the kit..."

I liked both of these!

Theresa wrote: I found so many I had read -- and did not of course automatically consider them as 'sad' -- and a whole slew on my TBR that I'm looking forward to this tag! Some are books I've been trying to get to for some time. Really expecting this to be a month of reading a few really terrific books.

I totally agree.

Recommendatons:
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Flowers for Algernon
All the Light We Cannot See
My Sister’s KeeperThe Nightingale
The Women
Prayers for Sale
Where the Crawdads Sing

What I'm considering from my TBR:
It Ends with Us if it comes in from the library on time.
The Last Letter
And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer
Fourth Wing
My F2F book club has us reading Fahrenheit 451 which strikes me as pretty sad!

Not really sure where to post this, but hope ideas may interest other members of group.

Been wondering what the person who suggested September's topic had in mind. Following are some book suggestions I think may fit theme, but also be somewhat off the beaten track.

"Sad" category has wide range, can include "wistful" & "poignant", go up to extreme "tragedy". Latter might encompass majority of titles often considered literary classics--see quote below from hilarious novel about an AP English reading assignment, which foreshadows from first page a death from drowning, but also includes a birth.

Scanning my recent e-library checkouts, many titles could fit Sept. prompt theme--but hesitate to recommend some I read or a number I didn't finish as subject matter didn't interest me, or wasn't in the mood (i.e. Crying in H Mart).

Thought about reasons someone might want to read other books that came to mind -- like impressive memoirs detailing great challenges & how these were overcome.

Another sub-catagory is traditional enjoyably tear-jerker romance (a form of catharsis?) with happy ever after ending, but first requiring "barrier" keeping lovers apart & "all seems lost" stage, also described as "ritual death"--one of genre's 8 essential elements listed in scholarly study A Natural History of the Romance Novel.

Other novels leaven sad events with sparkling humor, like The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls: one teen in novel inspired by Jane Austen characters has theory: "most of the books we read for school ended with someone dying, because teachers liked it when their students got depressed".

Easy to guess teacher "favorites" are Old Yeller, Bridge to Terabithia, Charlotte’s Web & many more. Still influential 1940'sThe Art of Dramatic Writing: Its Basis in the Creative Interpretation of Human Motives by Lajos Egri cites rather downer premises that teach moral lessons. See later a proof of proverb "no prophet is accepted in his own country" (or time), re now-famous "failed" author.

Weetzie Bat is short, acclaimed novel that could also fit categories "Punk" or "modern magical realism", an entertaining, fun poetic description of LA life--yet is also moving exploration of true love of several kinds including chosen family & friends, makes me cry, then smile through tears toward end.

Weetzie's nickname Shangri-L.A. for city reminds me of haunting Lost Horizon.

The Shuttle is sort of adult version by author of her children's classic The Secret Garden : Illustrated Edition inspired by her own real life experiences. Also a bit of Edith Wharton & Downton Abbey, with American heiress & impoverished aristocrat. Another iteration of scenario is feisty Baby Belle in Gone-Away Lakebooks who eventually--off the page--grows up to be Gibson-girl beauty who marries Italian count.)

Immense challenges faced & overcome in memoir The Distance Between Us & continuation A Dream Called Home by Reyna Grande are inspirational.
Reading true stories like this made me impatient with pallid fictional "problems" elsewhere that wimpy tepid main characters moan over for years throughout numerous very popular recent novels. Want to tell them, "Wake up & smell the real world coffee!"

Did you know that The Great Gatsby(financial flop in giddy Roaring Twenties) was partly inspired by 1913 French novel Le Grand Meaulnes aka The Lost Estate? Quote on Wikipedia says latter's about "the search for the unobtainable, and the mysterious world between childhood and adulthood".

Picture book I recommend for all ages is based on childhood of author/illustrator's grandmother during Great Depression, Home in the Woods by Eliza Wheeler.

Another children's book that may seem simple but deals with hard facts of life in a gentle way is The Goodbye Book by Todd Parr.

Been reading August 1943 issue of women's magazine free online (search "McCall's 1943-08: Vol 79 Iss 11") giving look into life during wartime. Articles, fiction & ads all reflect efforts to keep morale up, while aware that loved ones may not make it back home. Sept. 1943 issue continues sequel to novelMy Friend Flicka, which also may fit Sept 2024 reading theme.

P.S. Most books I've read aren't recorded on my GR account. Due to lack of time & incentive, tend to rely on automatically generated Libby account for e-books, or actual copies on my physical book shelves. But checkout my GR shelves & reviews anyway!

Thanks, Desertisland, for your thoughtful remarks and suggestions on books that might fit the "sad" prompt. Great "outside the box" thinking!

I assume the Sad tag was just a random draw, my guess is that the Olympics tag was the one proposed by a member, since it was topical. Every month there are two random tags and one selected by a member.

We've had a number of suggestions for books which have at least 5 tags for Sad but aren't overall downers. But my guess is that there will be way fewer books for the tag than in recent months.

I read Sunset Across India by Susan Evans McCloud. I found this book on my Mom's bookshelf. It was a sad book. Not many people have read this book and it is not tagged as sad, but most all the reviewers mention it as being sad. I did post a review.